Harbor Freight Carbide Faced Carving Disc for 4 1/2" Grinder

I had to carve 2” off the diameter of 4 1/2” pistachio tree that was 50” long and needed something to take off a lot of material without loading up or wearing out. So I tried one of the half donut shaped carving wheels from HF that has pieces of carbide embedded in it. I usually don’t like the cutting tools or sand paper from HF, but this carving wheel is one great abrasive tool. It cut all that wood away and is still sharp enough to do it again. I hate to say that I burned out a $10 HF angle grinder using it, but that would not hold up to work this wheel did. I finished the job with a Porter Cable angle grinder.

I also used it to carve some green mesquite wood and it loaded up the carbide after a while, but it was easily cleaned on a brass wire wheel and went back to some serious material removal.

I would highly recommend this $10 wheel !!

-- Jim Jakosh.....Practical Wood Products...........Learn something new every day!! Variety is the Spice of Life!!

Thanks Jim for taking the time to post this. Because of your review, I’m going to pick one up. I’ve been wanting to get into carving with my 4 1/2” Makita paddle grinder, and this is the perfect way to inexpensively test the waters.

Hey Jim, FYI, that is the very same grinding wheel I used to take out the material when I built the rocking chair and the footstool. A friend of mine lent me his Holey Gallahad wheel that cost between $75-$85 but it didn’t perform any better than the HF wheel. I used the 4 1/2” 60, 80, & 120 grit HF flap wheels as a follow up.